‘Your Apple ID Has Been Locked’ Phishing Scam Email

According to this email, which claims to be from Apple Support, your Apple ID has been locked for security reasons.

The email claims that your account is outdated and you are thus required to provide updated account ownership information. It instructs you to click a button labelled “Update Account Apple ID” to continue using your Apple ID service.

However, the email is not from Apple Support and your Apple ID has not been locked as claimed.

Instead, the email is a phishing scam designed to steal your personal and financial information.

If you click the button, a fraudulent website will load in your browser. The site features the Apple logo and other graphics and formatting to make it look like the real Apple website.

Once on the fake site, you will be asked to log in using your Apple email address and password.

Next, you will be asked to complete an “Account Verification” form that requests your name and address details, your credit card numbers and the security questions and answers associated with your account.

After submitting the bogus form, you will see a final message claiming that you have successfully updated your account. You may then be automatically redirected to the genuine Apple website.

Online criminals can now collect all of the information that you supplied and use it to hijack your Apple account, commit fraudulent transactions with your credit card, and attempt to steal your identity.

Note that, if you (or someone else) enters incorrect login details too many times, Apple may really lock your account for security reasons. However, you will usually be informed about this via a notification when you attempt to log in. Apple will not send you a generic email demanding that you click a link to update your account information.

An example of the scam email:

Your Apple ID has been Locked

This Apple ID has been locked for security reasons.It looks like your account is outdated and requires updated account ownership information so we can protect your account and improve our services to maintain your privacy.

To continue using the Apple ID service, we advise you to update the information about your account ownership.

Update Account Apple ID

For the security of your account, we advise not to notify your account password to anyone. If you have problems updating your account, please visit Apple Support.

Sincerely,
Apple Support

A screenshot of a fake Apple update form:

‘Your Apple ID Has Been Locked’ Phishing Scam Email was last modified: September 11th, 2018 by Brett M. Christensen